Booknotes 11-01-07

A round up on the week's booknews. By Edward O'Hare

Applause for Potter

The lives of children's authors rarely receive much attention. Critics suffer from a puritanical syndrome which leads them to only value biographies of ‘real' writers, while the stories of those who write for a younger audience are not considered worthy of the same treatment. This is hugely unfair because amid the mountains of titles written for children there is a set of books as cherished as any other classics of literature and which have a special place in our cultural history. There is no better example than the lovely books of Beatrix Potter.

January 2007 sees a brief reversal of this snobbish trend with the release of the movie Miss Potter, starring the fantastically-named Renee Zellweger, and the publication of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. A talented botanist, Beatrix Potter overcame the bigoted, male-orientated class structure of the late-19th Century to pursue scientific research which anticipated the development of penicillin. She was also an early environmentalist whose books were conceived to raise funds to protect the Lake District, which Potter loved dearly. How marvellous that we owe much of the finest countryside of Great Britain to Peter Rabbit and Jeremy Fisher.

Formidable

Students of the French revolution will be familiar with the men who took the major roles during that monumental period of upheaval. The lives of the likes of Marat, Danton and Robespierre have all been copiously chronicled. What has been forgotten is that the French revolution saw many brilliant women make history. In her book Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France, the historian Lucy Moore looks at the women who instigated the revolution and who fought to have their say in the future of France.

The six great figures Moore has chosen – Manon Roland, Juliette Recamier, Germaine de Stael, Theroigne de Mericourt, Pauline Leon and Theresia Cabarrus Fontenay – were united by the view that women must play a role equal to men in the new republic. Moore looks at the individul steps they took to make this happen. Some gave philosophical arguments, others used their influence over their powerful husbands while one even took up arms to achieve liberty. With Liberty, Moore has restored a perspective vital for a complete understanding of the French revolution.

Dickensian dramatics

One winter's night in 1853, a haggard and frenzy-haired man took to the stage of a playhouse in Birmingham. After introducing the book he held in his hands, the gentleman underwent a series of incredible transformations. Before the unbelieving eyes of the audience, the tired, stooped figure became a menagerie of different characters, from gallant young men to beautiful women, from aged invalids to innocent children, from heroes to villains, and all without the assistance of props or costumes. As the milky limelight faded and the curtain fell to cheers, the man on the stage regained his true identity, Charles Dickens.

Today, modern readers will expect to see their favourite authors reading on television and at literary festivals. This idea was first conceived by Dickens, whose legendary public readings are the subject of Charles Dickens and his Performing Selves, a new book by Malcolm Andrews. Dickens valued his relationship with his public above all and they had tremendous affection for him, attending his shows around the world in greater numbers than any performer has attracted before or since. The readings also re-ignited a passion for life in Dickens, whose campaign on behalf of the impoverished members of civilisation had left him world-weary. As a youth, Dickens's first intention was to become an actor but he was instead drawn into journalism. In his magical readings, he showed that his giant gift for storytelling was not just confined to the page.